So, Human Resources Is Making You Miserable?

First, I don't think it's necessarily constructive to compare our experiences at work with those of our US colleagues. Although, we should also acknowledge that being HR, even in the UK, in a business that actively despises its employees and goes out of its way to deprive them even of their legal minimum rights is soul-crushing (but, generally, doesn't attract people affiliated with the CIPD).

But fundamentally, the things that make it miserable to work in HR are exactly the same things that make it miserable to work in *any* department. Under-resourced, under-appreciated, poorly managed, untrained staff that are placed under excessive pressure to meet unreasonable objectives are going to be miserable *everywhere*. I haven't read the NYT article because I avoid giving anyone my data that doesn't actively need it, but I probably have a good idea of what it says from US-based friends.

Ineffective or inexpert managers use HR as a scapegoat for their own crappy decisions so people hate HR. See my (many) previous posts about how the failure to invest in effective management training and development in favour of a nebulous fetish for "leadership" has led us to a situation in which managers lack confidence in their decision-making ability and therefore blame someone else whenever they have to do something unpopular.

I put the question "why are HR people unhappy into Co-Pilot (other Ai programs are available :-) and got the following which as a starter for ten is pretty interesting (and quite close to the mark I would say

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1) High Expectations and Limited Resources: HR departments are expected to handle a wide range of responsibilities, from recruitment and employee relations to compliance and strategic planning. Often, they have limited resources and support to meet these demands

2) Conflict of Interest: HR is tasked with balancing the needs of employees with the interests of the company. This dual role can create tension and dissatisfaction, as HR professionals may feel they are unable to fully support employees while also protecting the company

3) Unresponsive Management: When HR raises concerns or suggests improvements, they may encounter resistance or indifference from upper management. This lack of responsiveness can be frustrating and demotivating

4)Employee Distrust: Many employees view HR with suspicion, believing that HR is more aligned with company interests than employee welfare. This distrust can make it difficult for HR to build effective relationships and foster a positive work environment

5)Emotional Toll: Dealing with employee grievances, conflicts, and terminations can be emotionally draining. HR professionals often have to manage their own stress while supporting others, which can lead to burnout

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For me I think it's because there is often a mismatch about what we want our jobs to be about and what they are actually about. So its 2, a bit of 3 (although goes down the higher up the greasy pole you are) and 5. 4 comes into play when we try to be all things to all people.

But for me I am pretty good thanks - I enjoy my job - thats partly because at my level I have large amounts of autonomy but I think its mainly because I have always tried to be a people architect rather than a surrogate manager or everytoes friend. That way was my route to professional happiness. O and a lot of running in my spare time :-)

I'm feeling a little apprehensive about the forthcoming employment law changes. I think some of the proposed measures are idealistic, and I've been worrying about the actual application of these measures and unintended negative consequences. Having said that, I do think it's an exciting time to be in HR, I'm particularly enjoying the new technologies we can utilise.

In reply to Rosie :

Rosie  One of the advantages of a longish career in HR Management is that to a certain extent you have seen it all before. Nothing we are seeing is really that new (with exception of "banning" zero hours contracts and that is being tonned down) and most other things have been tried in one form or another in the past. Some HR people will have to learn some new skills I am sure, but (and I don't mean this in a political sense) the pendulum has probably swung too far one way and is due a correction for a while

Robey, Keith and Holly. I hear you.

I think HR has always been a hard gig, is it harder than other functions, I don't know. Is it harder now than when I first joined the function from being in the business, I don't know. Does it make me miserable? No.

Other things in life, the UK and the world that are bigger and more worrisome make me feel sad and dent my trust, faith and hope that things are truly progressing for more people. That might be too deep for a Wednesday morning however it gives me and my work and my life a sense of perspective.

To get through the ups and downs natural in any career, I believe it's important to:
*keep learning, being curious and listening.
*get personal support and have a strong network we can lean on when we feel down.
*realise we can weather any ups and downs as things aren't often brand new, they are builds on what's gone on before and we can work through them.

In reply to Sharon:

Sharon said:

To get through the ups and downs natural in any career, I believe it's important to:
*keep learning, being curious and listening.
*get personal support and have a strong network we can lean on when we feel down.
*realise we can weather any ups and downs as things aren't often brand new, they are builds on what's gone on before and we can work through them.

Double 'Like' 

Is my job at times super frustrating? Yes, absolutely. Whether that is strained budgets, unrealistic expectations, CEOs dismissing advice in favour of bonkers decisions (to you at least!) - all of these make life harder. It's also kind of par for the course; it forces you to be creative with budgets, or to think of better comms to manage expectations or to be more pragmatic. Things are rarely ideal but that's part of the challenge which I personally find really interesting: what can you do with what you've got?

Where HR is associated with the negative (redundancies, pay freezes) - yes, sometimes you will be. But you can also do what's in your control to make sure those delivering those messages are doing so transparently and in a human way. And you have to be ok with the fact that you'll have to say no to people and that you can't please everyone.

If your job constantly makes you miserable, then you have the same option as all the other employees and can make a change! For me, it's definitely challenging, but it can also be immensely satisfying and rewarding.

It's not the job itself that's causing my frustration, it's the sector I work in. Within the charity sector there is continuous pressure to do more with less as budgets are tight and funding flows are unpredictable. The financial pressure brings challenges around talent attraction and retention and offering adequate professional development. Add to the mix the reliance of the sector on volunteers and how best to integrate them with paid staff.I do enjoy a challenge, but the constant need to apply for funding for every small project can be soul-crushing. The relentless pressure to secure resources, coupled with the high stakes of each application, often overshadows the rewarding aspects of the work.I have just started refreshing my CV.Wish me luck!

Ooof, so much to unpack here.

I know everyone's perspective will vary, but I personally don't correlate "challenges" with being unhappy at work. Sure, some aspects are challenging because I really don't want to do them, but for the most part I think creativity, ingenuity etc. are forged in challenging situations, and I generally love a good challenge for that.

If the core elements of your job role - i.e. HR - are making you unhappy, then leave. It's clearly not for you. I think it's more likely, however, that it's the business or industry that is making people unhappy.

The quote from the NYT article, "People hate us", really needs to be viewed in a bigger context. Over the last 10 years, in various businesses, I have had to dismiss people, terminate contractors agreements, run large scale redundancies, discipline etc. etc. as most of us have had to do. I can count on one hand the number of people I feel genuinely disliked ME. The vast, vast majority of people understand you are there to perform a role, and if you are respectful and empathetic, people understand. They might not like the business for it, they might not like the situation, but they don't really hate you.

A business that treats employees poorly, has a toxic culture and so on, will not exclude HR from the poor treatment.

I wouldn't say HR is making me miserable because, as Alys says, we all have the option to leave if that is the case.

There are, however, a couple of common denominators to my most miserable points that I would love to see change:

- mismatch between the intention of leadership and the actions of leadership. I started a post a little while ago about how there are so many good intentions out there at the moment, for me I particularly see this around EDI, but the actions just don't back it up. I tend to try and "pick my battles" to ensure my influence remains impactful and I don't sound like a stuck record when raising something. That can result in tiny incremental gains, which is the way much sustainable cultural change happens - it just feels too slow and requires a lot of energy and introspection to manage. I find myself frequently reflecting on whether I used my voice effectively in situations, while simultaneously feeling that others never question themselves on this!

- secondly I feel that the CIPD need to decide who they are here for. Or perhaps I just need to reconcile myself with the CIPD not being what I thought they were. I thought the CIPD were a body for HR professionals - a body to advocate for us and raise our voices on a higher level. Looking out for the best interests of HR professionals, trying to influence change to make the HR job more straightforward.

But instead I feel that the CIPD straddle too many interests (appealing more to employees and workers) and sometimes even edge towards bashing us, rather than being for us. I see many articles come out from People Management that start "what should HR do about..." and the CIPD guidance is often heavily weighted towards bending over backwards for employees. Even the guidance is often geared towards line managers rather than HR professionals - great if we want to signpost line managers to it...but what's the guidance for us? This is where I find ACAS guidance far more useful.

Of course giving guidance on best practice above the legal minimum is important, but everything seems to be something that HR should be doing more on and very little about how the CIPD are using their voice to advocate for improved legislation or guidance, improved investment in management training, improved awareness of how you can be damned if you do and damned if you don't.

For me, the push to be seen as strategic partners, while also modelling excellent line management for line managers to copy (but make sure you don't actually do the do-ing, just show how it's done), and improve engagement and wellbeing initiatives, and keep companies safe working within changing and grey guidance, and have you thought about supporting employees through the cost of living? and don't forget working parents, and what did you do about menopause this month? and did you know engagement is an all-time low, don't forget about quiet quitting and quiet hiring, do you have a seat in the Boardroom yet? That makes me feel alone at times, especially when it comes from a body I thought was there to support me.

In reply to Sophie:

Sophie, this is an interesting piece. It's honest, bold and brave to share as well. Thank you. It has got me thinking. I'll start with the role of the CIPD.

Every year when membership renewal comes around I reflect on the value of membership. That's a good thing. I run my own business, it's a commercial cost and reviewing costs is part and parcel. I'm not alone, many of my community members - I run a global, free community for people folks who work independently- also do this and talk about it. Many have left.

I stay because I get value. I have to look for it sometimes and make the most of the resources that are produced. I contribute here to give back to the profession and learn and I've invested time in finding the gems in the membership, which might not be always visible or easy to find.

All that said I think the professional body struggles to work out what it's purpose, scope is, and communicate that, and involve the widest range of members and keep evolving. It's hard for it to cover the breadth of experience levels, disciplines within HR and size of businesses we work in.

I think People Management is a separate business arm, their training is separate too so I imagine the CIPD is trying to both deliver resources to us in our contexts and also trying to manage it's own business and the various parts of it some of which are not so much in 'their control' and are like sub companies. People Management also needs to get clicks and views, so some of their headlines and articles feel more tabloid than broadsheet to use a newspaper analogy. That said I can find gems in there if I get beyond the click bait.

Finally, I'd echo your sentiments about what leaders say and what they do. I find the companies that I love to work with and for, and where I thrive are where there is more alignment between what is said and what is done. Sometimes, my job, HR as a function and our professional body is about holding the mirror up - to businesses and to ourselves - to say we are not doing what we say we are doing and then do something about it.

In reply to Sharon:

I pretty much agree with all of this Sharon. There are reasons I still have my CIPD membership, despite feeling a bit dissatisfied. And I recognise the challenges of trying to serve such a wide breadth of professionals in terms of experience, sectors and needs.

Ultimately I think the CIPD are surviving on reputation and lack of competition at this stage - they have a bit of a monopoly on qualifications and memberships in this area (not uncommon for professional memberships). If an organisation popped up that gained as much "kudos" with employers and offered benefits, I think the competition would be beneficial for all because it would force the organisation to pick their USP, pick their purpose and perhaps streamline to do that bit really, really well, rather than doing lots of things averagely.

I do see snippets every now and then of the CIPD being aware of issues and wanting to improve - and have no doubt that there are some very hard-working people behind the scenes who are also feeling like they can't keep up with the rising tide of work and like their best is not good enough, because they're making changes but hearing the same complaints! And all the pressures I feel about what HR should be focusing on, well they can only be worse if you are the CIPD because you have to lead on it!

So perhaps my gripe really is with HR in general, or perhaps our national culture in general! Perhaps I just need a holiday :)

One of the things I am struggling with is the disconnect of what I am learning I should be to my company through my CIPD Level 5 studies, and what my company want me to be for them.

They are a small company and the Directors want full control. Ethical decision making? Absolutely not. Do they want my input? No, they don't want to be called out. So for example, they ignore their own handbook where it suits, they promote people who's faces fit and to hell with the repercussions. They try to exit people often from the business if they don't fit the culture. They will not hire anyone older because it is a 'young business'.

I don't really believe there's a strategy for me to hang a HR strategy on if I'm being completely honest.

I'm not asked to be involved with talent planning because there is very little planning in any area and promotions are usually based on who the MD has promised them to.

Recruitment swings from no vacancies to about 18 over night depending on whether the business wins business but then often panics about the costs of those hires because there's no forecasting or budgeting ahead.

I'm lost. I don't know whether to leave or if it's like this everywhere...but it makes me miserable. I have no control. I don't see me ever being able to be involved with things I'm taught I should be. I just clear up a lot of mess.

In reply to Stacey:

Ah Stacey, that sounds really frustrating and demoralising and it's certainly not like that everywhere. Senior management of organisations can have a really wide ranging view of what they want and expect from their HR function: from 'tea, tissues and toilets' to being a valued and trusted partner. Some will still view it as being an admin only function or that you're there to be the HR police. It's definitely something to ask about during a recruitment process to try and gauge how they will see you.

In a lot of circumstances I would advocate for trying to talk to the leaders to understand what they're really looking for from you, trying to build relationships to open out more ethical ways of thinking and decision making, pushing for better planning... but I think on this occasion you know the answer to that. Some mess might be inevitable but if nothing changes time and time again, then it might be time to look for somewhere more circumspect where you can genuinely add value and practice what you've learned.

In reply to Stacey:

Aww Stacey! No it's not like that everywhere BUT you're also not alone in it being like this... Often in small businesses and/or start ups, it absolutely can be like that.

Are they paying for your CIPD? Are you tied into them? If yes, chatting to them about what you've learned may be a useful way to start building some change.

If no, consider if it's where you want to be, if there is enough good there for you to work with them. If there is (or if you're stuck) perhaps set yourself some small goals to bring about incremental change. See if you can build up enough trust with just a single leader to chat about how the actions are not matching values or how they're not matching policy etc. and chat about the impact this has - for you personally, but also on things like employee engagement and risk to the business financially and as a time drain - let them know you want to work with them on reducing this risk while also not causing unnecessary delays